riddled

English

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ˈɹɪdəld/

Adjective

riddled (comparative more riddled, superlative most riddled)

(also figurative) Damaged throughout by holes.
- 2024 March 20, Conrad Landin, “"Farcical" Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act isn't working”, in RAIL, number 1005, page 25:
  When the legislation was debated by the House of Commons, Labour Deputy Leader Angela Rayner said it was "riddled with holes", while former Conservative Commons Leader Jacob Rees-Mogg said it was "badly written".
Having (something) spread throughout, as if by an infestation.
1. Taking a noun complement construed with the preposition with.
  Synonym: lousy with
  
  Coordinate term: peppered with
  
  The minister claimed that the old benefits system was riddled with abuse and fraud.
  - 2013, Barry Keith Grant, 100 Science Fiction Films, page 121:
    Riddled with guilt for having failed to oppose the project, Zac sacrifices himself by driving the truck into the lab, detonating the explosives at the same time as the Effect reoccurs.
  - 2023 November 17, Blake Montgomery, “White House condemns Elon Musk’s ‘abhorrent’ antisemitic tweets”, in The Guardian‎^[1], →ISSN:
    Another anti-extremism organization, The Center for Countering Digital Hate, filed a motion to dismiss a lawsuit brought by X on Thursday, calling the suit “riddled with legal deficiencies”.
2. Taking a noun complement that precedes the adjective, forming a compound.
  Synonym: -ridden
  
  a hole-riddled sweater
  - 2008, Joan London, The Good Parents, Random House Australia, →ISBN, page 235:
    They took a swig each from an old bottle of sherry and ate some stale digestive biscuits sealed in a tin in the mouse-riddled cupboards.

Verb

riddled

simple past and past participle of riddle

Anagrams

diddler